In order to gain a snapshot of the various twists and turns
people's work lives take, LinkedIn
looked at the job progressions made by 94 million of its more
than 300 million users.

The Wall Street Journal
used the data
to create a fun tool that allows you to plug in a job title,
like "consultant," and see the three jobs LinkedIn users were
most likely to take next.

We tried it out with the popular "business analyst" role, a gig
held by many young people first starting their careers. What the
data show is that these professionals most commonly moved into
adjacent business-focused jobs.

Here were the three most common next steps for business
analysts:

1. Project Manager (13,238 people made this move.)

2. Consultant (12,884 people made this move.)

3. Salesperson (11,374 people made this move.)

"Salesperson" being on the list was no surprise, as
LinkedIn says moving to sales was the most common
transition it saw, likely because every field has some sort of
sales function.

LinkedIn also found that, actually, people tend to stay in the
same industry throughout their careers.

Though LinkedIn did not publish the exact number of studied users
who took jobs unrelated to their previous work experience, the
company's research consultant, Sohan Murthy,
told The Wall Street Journal it was less than he had thought
it would be.

You can visit
The Wall Street Journal to see which job people in your
position are most likely to wind up in next, and
LinkedIn to see a fun visualization of its data.